Lucknow, Jul 20 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh BJP MLA Rajeshwar Singh has written a letter to the Union government seeking enactment of a “comprehensive” anti-conversion law which defines the subject and ensures stricter punishment for offenders and protection to victims.
The legislator from the Sarojininagar assembly seat in Lucknow wrote to Union Law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, saying conversion was a “growing threat” that strikes at the very core of India civilisational identity, social harmony and national security.
He claimed that “organised” illegal religious conversions were being carried out through “coercion, deceit, inducement, psychological manipulation and marriage fraud.” “Recent events across various parts of the country including the exposure of Jamaluddin alias Chhangur Baba’s illegal conversion racket in Uttar Pradesh and the unearthing of an ISIS-linked conversion module in Agra reveal the magnitude and dangerous intent of these operations,” he said.
“These are not isolated incidents and represent a systemic, well-funded and ideologically driven assault on India’s cultural roots and the dignity of its daughter,” Singh wrote in his five-page letter.
Under the guise of charity, marriage, or social service, thousands of girls mostly from vulnerable Hindu, Scheduled Caste or tribal backgrounds are being targeted, converted and trafficked, the MLA, a former ED officer and an advocate at the Supreme Court, said.
Singh said there was “legal vacuum” and constraints at the state level in reining in these mass conversions.
There is “no effective deterrent for foreign funded proselytisation rackets and no common penal standard for religious fraud through marriage and false identity,” he said.
Low conviction rates due to “procedural ambiguities” and lack of central coordination were some of the other issues flagged by him.
The MLA said the 1-10 years punishment under existing laws was inadequate compared to the scale and gravity of “crimes” being committed by the conversion “mafias.” Therefore, Singh said, there was an urgent need for a central legislation that would define and categorise illegal conversions, prescribe punishment like life imprisonment for masterminds of mass conversion networks and repeat offenders.
The lawmaker called for procedural safeguards like mandatory disclosure before the district authority and protection of victims.
“This is not a matter of religious identity but one of national unity and constitutional morality. The constitution guarantees freedom of religion but not freedom to convert others to fraud or foreign funded conspiracy,” he said. PTI NES VN VN
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